By and large, society has moved from being nomadic to being agricultural and then to being industrial and now to the phase of being postindustrial or information-based.

How would you like if a leader in England protested the industrialization of England and demanded going back to being an agricultural society?

Some tried. They failed.

I suggest that Trump is trying to do something analogous by bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.

I believe America has advanced beyond being an industrial society. It is now in the postindustrial stage. This is evidenced by the increase in the role of services in the GNP. Manufacturing has moved to countries where labor is cheaper. Our labor is expensive. More educated. Who wants to do the work that could be done by immigrants, legal or not, or the less educated? They provide the physical labor necessary for manufacturing. The indigenous American, the educated ones (and we push for education nonstop), are going into service industries, whether finance or health or education. Or into information technology.

Look at universities. Who is studying at schools of engineering and science? Kids from Asia. And what are the American kids studying? Music, art, women’s studies, environmental studies…

America is not at the industrialization stage of its development. It has moved beyond it. Trump is trying to bring manufacturing back from abroad and at the same time stop or limit immigration. Who will do the work? How will it impact the cost of labor component of the cost of work done? Will it just reduce profitability by some insignificant amount or make us uncompetitive?

I remember driving from San Diego to Los Angeles along the Pacific coast. Right there, I could see the progression of civilization.

First, I saw agricultural land. Then some chimneys, and then I arrived at the Laguna Beach community.

The Laguna Beach community is a center for people who write, compose, and paint. A beautiful, artistic community.

People live humbly. Nothing ostentatious. Their focus is not on materialistic goals but on self-actualization.

And that is what America needs going forward. To change our goals. Measure our quality of life and not our standards of life.

The problem of unemployment should be solved not by more manufacturing but by job sharing. Work less. Enjoy life more.

We need to change our goals and how we measure success. Not going backwards. Go forward.

The ultimate responsibility of government (president included) is to provide the citizens a level of living that they can earn their own living and live safely as long as they are healthy.

In America, we lost that premise, the American dream is shared by fewer and the overwhelming majority of the Americans live in poverty.

Very few people can afford to live in Laguna Beach or feed themselves from arts painting or sculpting.

The US is 23 trillion dollars in debt and just this week they raised the debt ceiling again.

We send our youth to universities that teach nothing and young people start their independent life often with hundreds of thousands of student loan debt. Very few pay thier student loans from sellining painting in laguna beach.

The fact that engineering (and science) schools are all attended by “Asian kids” continue to grow a dysfunctional society.

We still have manufacturing in America, predominantly military equipment which we hope to sell to foreign countries in hope to balance the trade deficit.

America has dysfunctional education health and social service systems and that is pushing us from recrimination to death.

Donald trump is trying to get America back on the path toward prime. He understand that without manufacturing we have to import all the goods and the folks in lacuna Beach can not export enough to balance the trade deficit.

In the meantime we continue to brings slaves to America (we call them “undocumented” some of them pay taxes but many cause our public systems to collapse. Those that work are “competitive” salaries – almost the same as the slaves many years ago.

I dont know if Trump can succeed but I hope that he will that will be speed ahead not in any reverse.

good article overall…I agree with the change in goals we need…
have any thoughts about how to make it happen?
also, how will those who rig the financial game so that absurd amounts of wealth are sucked up to the top, to be either convinced to have less themselves, and enjoy it more, and to distribute the excess in a way that makes the rest of us able to stop having to scramble to get by, and to also be able to enjoy a better quality of life?

Trump is mostly talk. He will not succeed in helping all those miners and other workers and he never really intended to do it. (notice that all his factories are outside the USA) . He was lucky to run against a weak candidate who neglected certain key states and the not yet explained action of the head of the FBI 10 days before the election, which devastated Hillary’s campaign. He indeed changed history. The real problem is what to do with those male, white, middle-aged and poorly educated who are underemployed.

This is true. But, I suspect our green, postmodern thinkers can also be too dismissive of industry at times. I don’t think we can totally let go of manufacturing, etc, but I do think we are moving into new postmodern expressions which will be better in many ways. Trump may be overdoing it, but I would also argue, the more liberal side can also overdo letting go of classic industrial expressions of labor.

Should we continue to ignore the quality of life for the laborers in China and Mexico? Our goods are cheap because of the poor working conditions in these countries. Should’t we be concerned about their quality of life? Shouldn’t companies consider the working conditions in which their products are made before sending purchase orders?

I am a manufacturer in the USA. We are creating many new products that the world needs. The beautiful thing about manufacturing is that it requires a team of many different talents and expertise, from menial labor to creative marketing and R&D departments. In our business, we utilize EasterSeals employees in manufacturing, working with our own production workers. Our manufacturing business employees all types of Americans, those with disabilities to those who are geniuses. For many people, making a product with their hands, working on a team, producing a product for society that helps others is very rewarding. Our workers are full of pride and dignity by the work they do. What a beautiful thing to behold! For those who think manufacturing is somehow old fashion or dirty business, you need to take more field trips into the real world. God bless Trump in his efforts to make the American manufacturer more competitive by leveling the playing field. I also am an engineer by training, it is very hard to find quality American engineers coming out of college these days. Shame on the American education system for the waste of American ingenuity on political correctness that is downgrading our ability to compete in the world.

I agree with the sentiments expressed in your blog. However, I strongly believe that there are many critical manufacturing type jobs that must be done in the US to presenrve our ownership and security of the technology underlying them. In essence, when “someone” manufactures an iphone or a solar panel, inevitably they learn the technology underlying it – without paying a dime. So why is China the largest manufacturer of its own hi-speed-trains or windmills (electricity). How do they produce an I-phone or similar phones almost identical to those developed in the US. There are many such examples in India, japan, China, Korea.

Dr. Azizes… I would agree with the larger picture you present of the US moving to a digital or technological age. However, as a tool and die maker who has seen his job outsourced to China, I need a job now, not retraining for some future digital position. President Trump’s goal of bringing jobs back to the US is totally appropriate as a strategy for reducing unemployment and putting people back to work.

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Please note:

The insights presented in these blogs are the personal insight of Dr. Ichak Kalderon Adizes and do not necessarily express the opinion or position of the Adizes Institute or its staff individually or as a group.

DISCLAIMER: The insights presented in these blogs are the personal insight of Dr. Ichak Kalderon Adizes and do not necessarily express the opinion or position of the Adizes Institute or its staff individually or as a group.